Georgian cuisine is well-known across the world. Various websites such as FoodAtlas or Culinary Backstreets have devoted multiple articles to the traditional Georgian dishes. One of the most celebrated Georgian foods is Shoti Bread (in Georgian “Shotis Puri”). This canoe-shaped bread is distinguished not only by its taste but also the way it is traditionally baked.

“It is incredibly hard work. Marekhi’s day begins at 4:30 a.m., when she and her co-worker Nona Khatiashvili (no relation) start making giant tubs of dough in the back of the low-ceilinged bakery, ready to be baked into the long, flat loaves of bread that Georgians call shoti. It’s a ritual of daily life here.

As they turn and press the heavy mix of flour, water, salt, and yeast, it is almost up to their elbows.

Everything is done by hand. That’s the special ingredient,” reads Culinary Backstreets’s article about the bread.

Shoti bread is a flat bread soft inside and crispy outside. It is baked vertically in a sunken stone oven (tandoori) known as “Tone” in Georgian. Traditionally in order to bake Shoti all you need is a mix of flour, water, salt, and yeast. After mixing you should knead the dough by hand.

“The freshly baked bread is then placed on wooden racks to cool, and it is usually sold wrapped in a sheet of paper.

Shotis puri is consumed as an everyday bread, but it is especially popular during festive events such as Easter, Christmas, and birthdays,” TasteAtlas about Shoti bread.

Source: Georgianjournal.ge